OFFSTAGE: Blake Shelton’s Homemade Chew

(CMT Offstage keeps a 24/7 watch on everything that’s happening with country music artists behind the scenes and
out of the spotlight.)

“The #BoysRoundHere
official video is now available everywhere. This calls for a drink!” Blake Shelton
tweeted on Monday (May 6). And he’s right. The video does make you want to pour a cold one because the whole thing has a very
front-porch-barn-party vibe. And if it doesn’t make you want to drink, it might make you want to chew. Not necessarily tobacco,
though. Shelton recently admitted to CMT’s Katie Cook that as a kid, he had his own kind of chew. “I remember when they used
to — and they probably still do — put beef jerky that’s shredded in the cans for kids to act like they’re dippin’,” he said.
“I wore some of that out back in the day, especially in elementary school.” Shelton even said he had another chew alternative:
Big League Chew. “Still do some of that every now and then,” he said of the shredded bubblegum. All the chew talk comes from
the line in the song when he sings, “Chew tobacco, chew tobacco, chew tobacco, spit.” So even though Shelton doesn’t chew
tobacco, that lyric wouldn’t have sounded nearly as good with references to beef jerky or bubblegum.